MaltaToday: Former PN candidate says PL is different because it ‘listens to everyone’

Cyrus Engerer: "The problem with the PN today is that it lacks vision".

Sliema deputy mayor and former PN candidate Cyrus Engererclaims the difference between the Nationalist Party and theLabour Party lies in the fact that Labour 'listens to everyone'.

In the space of two weeks, Sliema deputy mayor Cyrus Engerer moved on from addressing the PN’s general council to joining the Labour Party. Faced with sceptism on how quick he was to jump from one party to another, in an interview with MaltaToday, Engerer makes it clear that the decision was not taken overnight.

“For the past year I was noting that the party was becoming more and more conservative, especially on those issues which affect my life,” Engerer reveals in an interview appearing tomorrow in MaltaToday’s Sunday edition. “The party was closing ranks, and becoming more confessional.”

Engerer says that whilst he and Opposition leader Jospeh Muscat do not agree on issues such as same-sex marriage, Muscat is open to be convinced on the contrary:

“I see a fundamental difference between Lawrence Gonzi and the PN and Joseph Muscat and the PL on this issue... the good thing about Muscat is that although we disagree, he invited me to convince him that his opinion is wrong. He told me that he would even change his position if convinced. The difference between Labour and PN is that Labour listens to everyone.”

Engerer also revealed that immediately after the referendum, he went to the party’s headquarters to talk to the PN information director Frank Psaila and told him he was no longer feeling comfortable in the party.

Psaila had not only told Engerer to give it one last try by attending the general council, but had also encouraged Engerer to contest the general election with the PN.

But Engerer says he had refused because of his disagreement’s with the party’s leadership.

Maltese Gender Identity Law [Transgender / Intersex]

Civil Unions Parliamentary Debate and Vote

Note: The Civil Unions Bill [20/2014] has successfully passed through the Maltese Parliament with 37 votes in favour, 30 absentions and 0 votes against on the 14th April 2014. It gives the same rights and obbligations to same-sex couples as those who are registered in a civil marriage (mutatis mutandis).